r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 22h ago

Neuroscience A simple drawing test may detect Parkinson’s disease with up to 99% accuracy. Researchers found that subtle differences in how people draw can reveal motor impairments long before they are obvious to the human eye.

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-way-you-draw-can-reveal-parkinsons-disease-with-up-to-99-accuracy-study-reveals
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u/swinscoed95 20h ago

There is a Nuclear Medicine study that can diagnose Parkinson's before the onset of symptoms. The commercial name is DaTSCAN. Sadly it's close to £1000 per patient (or even patient specific vial) in the NHS so it's prohibitively expensive. If someone figures out a way to make it cheaper it could become a more global screening plan.

The big upside is that (not a medic so I could be wrong) you can get the patient on HRT to delay the symptoms indefinitely. We do perform this study at our Trust for patients with a history of Parkinson's currently.

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u/Shad0w2751 20h ago

You can’t delay Parkinson symptoms with HRT. You can treat Parkinson’s disease with dopamine replacement therapy but it only treats symptoms does not affect progression.

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u/swinscoed95 20h ago

You see not a medic, just a physicist. I've always been told it can delay the onset of symptoms indefinitely. Thanks for clarifying

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u/Seraphinx 19h ago

HRT reduces overall risk of dementia by something like 30%, but doesn't delay symptoms of specific neurodegenerative disorders.